If
you do not have the time or yard space, it is still possible to grow a
garden full of delicious healthy produce by indoor gardening.
Maybe the soil where you live is hard to manage, has a shallow bed of
rocks, or slow-draining clay. Fresh vegetables can be included on your
dinner menu in a blink of an eye with the best solution of growing
plants above ground.

When
space is limited, vegetable gardening ingenuity grows by leaps without
boundaries. A specially constructed wooden planter with a drainage tray,
can house cherry tomatoes. Containers and vertical plantings make the
most out of even the smallest spaces. A garden out of thin air;
container tomatoes can hang from the eaves outside a family room window.

Indoor Gardening Tips: Growing a Vegetable Tree

Build a vegetable tree to grow crops by taking two 2 X 12 boards 6 feet
in length for the backboard. Fasten a half circle of concrete
reinforcing wire to the boards. Line the half cylinder with black
plastic film, and fill with light planting soil mixture.

Early in the season, it can be turned into a lettuce tree by slitting
the plastic and setting in lettuce transplants. Plant two tomato plants
that will drape down from the top later in the season. Plant two
cucumber plants halfway down the vegetable tree that will end up of
covering the base.

Drainage can be a challenge when growing an
indoor vegetable garden. Many sizes and types of trays, and saucers can
by purchased at your local garden center, to catch extra water draining
from your pots and containers.

Small Space Indoor Vegetable Gardening

Do not let a limit of outdoor space get you down, take your gardening
skills to new heights by growing vertically. Taking full advantage of
vertical space by growing vegetables upwards in place of downwards.

Cover
a balcony or patio wall with a bean vine. Attach planter boxes for
draping plants such as cherry tomatoes or cucumbers. Keep in mind, the
more roots are restricted, they need additional watering and nutrients.

Indoor Container Gardening

Indoor gardening can take place in boxes, baskets, plastic
bags, clay pots, and half barrels, essentially any container to create
the ideal environment for root development. A plus for container gardens
is grass and tree roots cannot invade. Outdoor container gardens can
also be moved indoors to a sunny location to extend the vegetable
growing season.

Free of the inhibiting problem of infested
soil, tomatoes thrive so well in containers; many gardeners who have
plenty of ground space are switching to pots, boxes, and baskets. Plant
eggplants, peepers, and cucumbers on terraces and patios. A planter box
measuring 8" deep, 12" wide, and 3" long delivers enough beets, carrots,
or lettuce for many meals.

Indoor Herb Gardening

Another bonus of indoor vegetable gardening is the ability to grow fresh
herbs all year round. There are many medicinal purposes for growing
herbs besides its culinary applications. For example, in ancient Indian
folklore, turmeric was called the spice of life. In recent studies,
turmeric has been shown as beneficial in fighting Alzheimer's, adding to
it health benefits along with the additional taste to curry.

Indoor Counter Top Gardens

A counter top may be your only indoor gardening option. If your counter
top is sunny, you can grow herbs and lettuce in containers. If needed,
use grow lights to provide the needed amount of sunlight for your garden
to flourish. Several companies such as AeroGarden, offer convenient
kits of different sizes and seed mixtures for growing on kitchen counter
tops. These units come with built-in grow lights and easy to follow
planting and care instructions.

Traditionalist ground gardeners
may chuckle and shake their head at the extreme measures indoor
vegetable gardening may lead to designing creative ways to grow indoors.
However, who will be laughing when they are outside in the heat,
humidity, crawling with bugs, waist high in weeds, and inside you are
sitting high and dry, cool as a cucumber.

By indoor gardening, set
up your own mini vegetable factory with the comforts of being indoors.
This method of gardening concentrates the growing of vegetables in an
environment that is free of any open space vegetable gardening hazards
such as harsh weather conditions, pests, and plant diseases.